Equal Standards

Juan Williams, from NPR and Fox News, has an excellent article in the Wall Street Journal. Here are a few good quotes:

If his presidency is to represent the full power of the idea that black Americans are just like everyone else — fully human and fully capable of intellect, courage and patriotism — then Barack Obama has to be subject to the same rough and tumble of political criticism experienced by his predecessors. To treat the first black president as if he is a fragile flower is certain to hobble him. It is also to waste a tremendous opportunity for improving race relations by doing away with stereotypes and seeing the potential in all Americans.

Every American president must be held to the highest standard. No president of any color should be given a free pass for screw-ups, lies or failure to keep a promise.

There is a dangerous trap being set here. The same media people invested in boosting a black man to the White House as a matter of history have set very high expectations for him. When he disappoints, as presidents and other human beings inevitably do, the backlash may be extreme.

Excellent. He really gets to the heart of many of the postings by the staff here at the Moratorium site, the fact that the media treats Liberals with kid gloves and give them pass after pass after pass while holding Conservatives feet to the fire. It’s great reading.